The Silver Ferns have undergone significant changes with new talent and the departure of their former captain.
Interim coach Yvette McCausland-Durie led the team to nine wins from 12 tests this year.
Key players like Kelly Jury, Kate Heffernan, and Grace Nweke have been pivotal in their recent successes.
This year has been a turbulent period of change for the Silver Ferns. The drama surrounding head coach Dame Noeline Taurua aside, the influx of fresh talent and the departure of their former captain ushered the Ferns into somewhat of a new era.
Through series wins over SouthAfrica, Scotland and England plus an extra-time Constellation Cup loss to Australia, interim coach Yvette McCausland-Durie has experimented with numerous fresh players and combinations.
The results – nine wins from 12 tests – indicate this year has been largely successful. However, the Ferns are usually tweaked a few times over the course of a match. With the Commonwealth Games looming next year, the question remains – what is New Zealand’s all-round strongest line-up?
The long-limbed, 1.92m defender has been New Zealand’s best for years. Across 83 test caps dating back to 2017, Jackson has won two Constellation Cups, several Taini Jamison series and back-to-back ANZ Premiership titles with the Central Pulse in 2019 and 2020. She also played a key role in the New Zealand Under-21 team’s unbeaten run to the Youth World Cup title in 2017. Not to mention, she’s won the Dame Lois Muir Supreme Award – recognising the country’s best player – for the past three years in a row.
Jackson failed to find top form in the Constellation Cup, perhaps symptomatic of public scrutiny coming from the standing down of Dame Noeline Taurua. However, she improved markedly in the crucial fourth test, which New Zealand won before Australia clinched the series in extra time.
Kelly Jackson has won three consecutive Dame Lois Muir awards. Photo / Photosport
Goal defence: Catherine Hall
The 21-year-old medical student is arguably the most promising youngster the ANZ Premiership has produced in years. Hall has made a noticeable difference in every cameo she’s made thus far in the test arena.
Alongside Jackson, Hall’s 1.91m frame means attackers will have no room to breathe regardless of where they are shooting from in the circle.
We can only hope the allure of playing for the Silver Ferns remains tantalising enough to dissuade her from the Australian Super Netball offers, which will undoubtedly arrive in her inbox. Let’s hope they go to junk mail.
Catherine Hall had a number of eye-catching cameos in 2025. Photo / Getty Images
Wing defence: Karin Burger
They say pressure creates diamonds, and the leadership of Burger during the Dame Noeline Taurua saga is case in point. The 32-year-old’s MVP performance in the victorious third Constellation Cup test in Hamilton was a “follow me” effort with the side under immense pressure. They were down 2-0 in their title defence, with an angry public attempting to hold athletes accountable for the banishment of their beloved coach.
Burger is a brilliant goal defence, but is just as dynamic at wing defence. Her versatility allows Hall to slide in alongside Jackson and form New Zealand’s most physically imposing defensive trio.
Karin Burger took charge of the Silver Ferns in an interim capacity in 2025. Photo / Photosport
Centre: Kate Heffernan
Some might raise eyebrows at Maddy Gordon – the Silver Ferns’ form player – getting shifted out of her predominant position at centre. However, Heffernan is too strong, on both sides of the ball, to leave out. The Southern Steel skipper’s lob passes to Grace Nweke were a highlight of the Ferns’ efforts against Australia.
Primarily a wing defence, Heffernan’s eye for deflections and timing with a box defence strategy is enough to keep any midcourt in the world guessing.
Kate Heffernan has made her name across both centre and wing defence. Photo / Photosport
Wing attack: Maddy Gordon
The Pulse midcourter struggled for consistent game time at the 2023 World Cup, but since then has been a Silver Ferns lock-in. Gordon brings speed and versatility, and her 40 test caps make her a steady and experienced hand on the wheel. Gordon’s connection with Nweke came to the fore during the second Scotland test as one of New Zealand’s premier combinations.
Her long-range passes into the circle have become commonplace, but Gordon showed the ability to adapt in getting the ball to the edge of the circle when required in the latter Constellation Cup tests. The 25-year-old usually starts in the centre bib and shifts to wing attack in the second half.
Maddy Gordon has made herself indispensable in 2025. Photo / Getty Images
Goal attack: Georgia Heffernan
The departure of former captain Ameliaranne Ekenasio made the goal attack bib the most hotly debated position in the Silver Ferns’ line-up. After a mixed ANZ Premiership campaign with the Southern Steel, Heffernan made the goal attack bib her own, outshining fellow attacking circle prospects Martina Salmon, Amelia Walmsley and Filda Vui.
By the latter Constellation Cup tests, she had become the clear first-choice, displayed in Yvette McCausland-Durie’s selection of Heffernan in the extra time contest with Australia. The 26-year-old’s poise and ability to turn and shoot from range make her a reliable alternative to Nweke, who is often double-teamed. However, with Nweke usually doing the bulk of the shooting, it is Heffernan’s initiative to leave the circle and communicate with the midcourt to shift the ball up-court that sets her apart.
The 1.92m Walmsley made a great fist of the goal attack position, having previously specialised at goal shoot. With improvement, she will form a towering circle alongside Nweke.
Walmsley will partner Salmon at the Stars in next year’s ANZ Premiership. From a Silver Ferns perspective, it would be great to see the pair swap bibs within the circle and hone both positions.
Georgia Heffernan found her feet in the test arena during the Constellation Cup. Photo / Photosport
Goal shoot: Grace Nweke
The easiest selection of the Silver Ferns line-up, Nweke has dominated the New Zealand shooting circle since bursting on to the scene as a 19-year-old in 2021. Such was her ANZ Premiership dominance with the Northern Mystics, Nweke shifted to the New South Wales Swifts for this year’s Super Netball in Australia to extend herself in different ways. While this will undoubtedly make her a better player, it has also given Australia, England and Jamaica’s best players a closer look at her style and a chance to get used to defending against her.
The Diamonds often chose to double-team the 49-test 23-year-old during the Constellation Cup, leaving her uncharacteristically rattled in game two. And yet, while it may seem hard to believe, Nweke is still in the early stages of her career and has plenty of growth to come on the international stage. Her height and physical dominance at the post – not to mention leadership – puts her head and shoulders above her Kiwi competition for the goal shoot bib, and her absence is always resoundingly felt.
Grace Nweke has dominated the Silver Ferns goal shoot bib for years. Photo / Photosport
Nathan Limm has been a journalist with Newstalk ZB and the NZ Herald since 2020. He covered the Netball World Cup in Cape Town in 2023, hosts The Big League Podcast and commentates rugby and netball for Gold Sport.
